MS CLAKE IS DOING A PHD WITH LUKE KENNARD AT BIRMINGHAM UNIVERSITY, ON THE FEMINIST ABSURD IN AMERICAN AND BRITISH POETRY JENNA CLAKE I...

Thursday, 14 May 2015

2015 MELITA HUME POETRY PRIZE SHORTLIST FOCUS: JEN CALLEJA

SHE ALSO PLAYS IN THE BAND SAUNA YOUTH

Jen Calleja (pictured) was born in Shoreham-By-Sea, West Sussex, and
lives in London. She is a writer, literary translator from German, reviewer and
editor of Anglo-German arts journal Verfreundungseffekt.Her short
fiction and poetry have been published by The Quietus and Structo,
in many independent publications, as well as released on record and played on
BBC radio. She was runner-up finalist of Brighton Festival's inaugural Peacock
Poetry Prize in 2011. She also plays in the bands Sauna Youth, Feature and
Monotony. This poem is from her short-listed collection.

extract from she is that which I are

I come to an isolated
factory. Disused, with a distorted structure. I remembered night shifts
stirring, stirring, making checks and kicking back for naps. I’d eat – from the
pots with a long spoon – the melting components. I couldn’t afford the canteen
lunch. It was a story my friend enjoyed telling, the way only he can. It popped
up in a graphic novel, green and brown and grey, and though I never felt that
way, it really is what happened. The story became a screenplay, then came the
movie with a slew of reviews which shared the same specific line misquoted,
that became a rally slogan, or nothing at all.